Syntipas
Works
a Persian sage, to whom are attributed two works of which we possess Greek translations, which bear the name of Michael Andreopulus.
A romance
One of these works is a romance, or collection of stories, very much on the plan of the Thousand and One Nights.
By an Arabic author, however, the work is ascribed to one Sendebad, the head of the philosophers of India, who lived somewhere about 100 years before Christ, and wrote a work entitled "The Book of the Seven Counsellors, the Teacher and the Mother of the King."
This work was translated into Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac, and it is from this last translation that the Greek translation was made. The Greek translation seems to belong to about the eleventh century.
It appears not unlikely that this work became known to Europe through the crusades.
In the form in which we at present possess it, the work has been accommodated to Christian ideas.
Editions
The Greek text was published by Boissonade (
De Syntipa et Cyri Filio Andreopuli Narratio, Paris, 1828).
Collection of Fables
The other work attributed to Syntipas, and, like the former, translated into Greek from the Syriac, is a collection of fables (
παραδειγματικοὶ λόγοι).
Editions
An edition of this work was published by F. Matthaei at Leipzig, in 1781.
Further Information
Schöll,
Gesch. der Griech. Litteratur. vol. iii. p. 429, &c.
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C.P.M]
